Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed

February 2019 Unemployment Figures

5 Mar 2019

On March 5th, 2019 the Central Statistics Office (CSO) published the Monthly Unemployment figures for February 2019. The monthly unemployment figures are based on the most recent Labour Force Survey (LFS) and changes in the Live Register since that LFS was released. The latest LFS covers Quarter 4, 2018 and was published on February 19th 2019.

In Q4, 2018 the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 5.7%. On foot of this LFS data the CSO revised the Monthly Unemployment Rates published for December 2018 and January 2019: the new rates are now 5.7% in comparison to 5.3%.

In February, 2019 135,100 people were unemployed, a decline of 1,600 on the same month in 2018. The overall Monthly Unemployment Rate (MUR) was 5.6%, down 0.2% on February 2018. Women account for 46.3% of those who are unemployed and men for 53.7%. In February 2019 the female and male unemployment rates were the same as the overall rate: 5.6%. A year ago the male rate was higher at 5.9%, while the female rate was 5.7%.

Looking at these figures from an age perspective there were 95,400 unemployed people aged between 25 and 74 years, and their MUR was 4.5%. A year ago these figures stood at 99,600 and 4.8% respectively. Men account for 51.3% of this age group and women 48.7%. The male MUR was 4.3%, down 0.5% on February 2018. While the female MUR remained unchanged at 4.7%.

For the younger age group, people aged 15-24 years of age, there were 39,700 young people unemployed and their MUR was 13.8%. In February 2018, 2,600 fewer young people were unemployed and their MUR was 13.5%. Looking at the gender breakdown, 40.3% of this group were women, and there were 500 fewer young women unemployed than a year ago. The MUR for young women went down by 0.6% to 12.1%. Men accounted for 59.7% of this age group in February 2019. Over the year the number of young men unemployed increased by 3,000; while their Monthly Unemployment Rate (MUR) went up by 1.1% to 15.3%.